Individuals recovering from a surgery or e.g. a brain injury (stroke) need physical and optionally cognitive therapy and training. Today, training is mainly carried out by simple exercises where a patient interacts with a physiotherapist and uses non-feedback training devices and tools like stepping on mats in different colours and other like activity tools. These non-feedback devices lack an important feature of giving feedback to both the physiotherapist and the user on his/her performance. Such feedback may include an audiovisual signal indicating how an exercise is carried out e.g. by the means of a light source and/or a loudspeaker. The physiotherapist has difficulties evaluating e.g. the weight distribution on the patient's legs, whether the patient has all his/her body weight on one leg or it is evenly distributed on both legs.
One the other hand very complex interactive systems exist on the market today, such as interactive horizontal video screens, where a person can interact with the system by walking around on the horizontal screen and hereby receive a response on the screen according to his/her movements.
EP 2 105 09 01 A1 relates to a therapeutic training device comprising a shallow housing of a specific shape with a quadratic top surface, a quadratic bottom surface and four thin rectangular side surfaces. The housing comprising an upwardly open cavity in the top surface and a flexible and transparent cover has a size in the range between the size of a human first and a human foot, and defines a central part. The force sensor measures the force applied on the flexible and transparent cover and generates a response signal. The housing further comprises a light source placed inside the cavity, the light source being visible though the flexible and transparent cover and a central processor placed inside the housing, which activates the light sources in accordance with a specific software and evaluates the response signal from the force sensor in accordance with the specific software. A plurality of communication means is located on the side surfaces and is controlled by the central processor and communicates with adjacent devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,959 relates to a method and device for providing active exercise treatment for a patient suffering from a bone disorder, where a patient strikes a sensor in a manner to produce an impact load at an impact rate along the axis of a bone experiencing the bone disorder, and that impact load and impact rate are measured and compared to desired impact load and impact rate values to determine a success indicator of how close the patient came to the desired impact load and impact rate values in striking the sensor. The success indicator is provided to the patient as feedback for the active exercise treatment and is recorded.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,122,846 relates to an apparatus and method of operation for measuring forces applied to a wearer's foot, the apparatus providing an indication to the wearer when forces on the foot exceed pre-selected upper limits or do not meet pre-selected lower limits. A body member is disclosed for attachment around the wearer's foot, the body member having an exterior sole and an interior sole portion covered by a rigid foot plate. The foot plate includes an upper support surface for contact with the foot. The interior sole portion includes at least one cavity within, with a force sensing unit attachable partially within the cavity. At least one strain gage is positioned at a midpoint on the force sensing unit, and the force sensing unit is connectable to the underside of the foot plate. An electronic means is mounted within the cavity and is electrically connected to the at least one strain gage. The electronic means receives electronic signals from the strain gage, the signals in proportion to force applied onto the force sensing unit when the wearer's foot applies weight onto the foot plate, with conversion of the signals to output signals for transmission to a signal processing means in a remotely located receiver and display unit. The display unit compares the output signals to upper limits and lower limits, and displays alarms when output signals do not reach lower limits, or exceed upper limits, therefore assisting with therapeutic rehabilitation of an injured lower extremity.
US2007/021282 relates to a postural awareness apparatus includes a pad, a signal generating element and an element for detecting a weight applied to the pad and activating the signal generating element when the weight so detected exceeds a predetermined weight.